Written by Nate Christensen
Updated on June 5th, 2023
Table of Contents
Introduction
This article explains Process Wizards in basic terms. If you are new to the concept of Process Wizards, this article is for you. However, if you already have a foundation of knowledge that you would like to expand upon, feel free to skip to our other articles that dive into Wizards in greater detail. Check out our Creating Process Wizards, Wizard Roles, and Wizard Groups articles for more advanced information on Process Wizards.
Revenue Use Case
Use Case: Process Wizards/Revenue
The Problem
A lender decides to implement a new payment program to increase collections from borrowers who are undergoing hardship. In order to implement this plan within the company, they train new employees, make quick reference guides about how a loan or borrower becomes eligible for the program and demonstrate to their people the way to implement the payment program within their lending software. The result is that agents now use the payment program as a way to appease angry customers, not just to help customers who qualify. The program is occasionally improperly implemented due to human error.
LoanPro's Solution
Process Wizards are an excellent way to make sure revenue-driving measures are implemented and adopted well. For something like a payment program, a loan will only qualify, and the Wizard to implement the program will only be made available, based on the lender's business logic. The program enrollment will happen through the wizard, but the changes to the loan will be made behind the scenes by Rules Applied, making the plan effective, and training and adoption easy, speeding implementation.
Compliance Use Case
Use Case: Process Wizards/Compliance
The Problem
A lender who uses LoanPro has a borrower who is called to active-duty military service, qualifying them for an interest rate reduction from 15% to 6%. The borrower calls the lender and the phone is answered by a servicing agent. The borrower asks the agent to please lower their interest rate. Initially the agent refuses, but the borrower explains that the interest rate reduction is required by law. The agent reduces the interest rate to 6%. No documentation on the call to active duty was ever requested. Nothing but the rate change was recorded, so an audit of the loan might prompt the business to raise the rate back to what it was. Correctly carrying out lending processes in a compliant way with sufficient documentation can be a problem for lenders.
LoanPro's Solution
Process Wizards help keep you compliant. A Process Wizard is designed to walk servicing agents, managers, and other personnel through a specific process. As the user moves through each screen, they can enter information relevant to the process, and can be required to enter necessary information. Completing a process using a Process Wizard ensures consistency, trackability, and that the necessary information will be gathered and provided, keeping the lender compliant.
Efficiency Use Case
Use Cases: Process Wizards/Efficiency
The Problem
During the life of a loan, a borrower may declare bankruptcy. This process includes several steps, and can be quite involved. It also doesn't come up that often, so it probably requires special training and knowledge about all the moving parts. If a bankruptcy isn't handled correctly, it's possible the lender will lose their claim to repayment of the debt. So, it's important to make sure bankruptcy or other less-common lending processes are something that servicing agents and managers are trained on. It's also important not to let untrained personnel make uninformed bankruptcy decisions. Wizards help solve these issues.
LoanPro's Solution
Lenders create Wizards for lending processes, like bankruptcy, so they can give permission only to specific servicing agents to carry out those processes. Lenders can also set rules to check that a loan qualifies for a process before it's carried out. When agents use a Wizard they are guided through a screen-by-screen process within LoanPro that lets them enter only relevant information for each step. Each screen within the Wizard includes customizable, detailed instructions. Any important updates to a loan that should be made as part of the process are done behind the scenes by rules applied, moving decision making to the business level and reducing training time and cost as well as human error.
Highlights
A Process Wizard guides LoanPro users through a processes by presenting sequential screens that contain or gather information relevant to the process. Each screen includes customizable instructions to lower the possibility of human error.
LoanPro's Loan Management System (LMS) is a powerful tool. We understand that it may be a bit daunting to expect every member of your team to master both loan processes and the Loan Management System itself. Process Wizards make lending processes easy to follow with very little training.
You've likely used a wizard before to install an application. Without wizards, you'd need a background in computing just to set up a new printer or internet browser, and that would just be annoying. LoanPro's Process Wizards are just like the installation wizards you have seen before, but they exist entirely within LMS and walk users through your own loan servicing processes. Best of all, they are configurable.
Where Does Process Wizards Fit?
Like we discussed above, Process Wizards are set up to guide you through a complex process. Some processes, such as dealing with a fraud claim on a loan, involve multiple steps on different pages within LMS. Process Wizards simplify this process significantly. If implemented properly, the Process Wizard will not only explain how to complete the required steps but also take you to the right pages to do so.
Rules and Validations
We mentioned above that Process Wizards help eliminate process missteps and mistakes. Process Wizards make it easier to follow the correct steps, but you may be wondering, "What if a user uses a Process Wizard on a loan that doesn't need it and ruins something?"
LoanPro uses what we call Rules and Validations as a solution to this problem. Rules and Validations work in tandem as a team of fail-safes.
Rules determine if a loan qualifies for a Process Wizard before it's opened. Essentially, the rule contains business logic to determine if the Process Wizard should be available for the loan. If a loan doesn't qualify for a Process Wizard due to the Rule that you set, the Process Wizard cannot be opened. Each Process Wizard requires a Rule, and you can only set one on each Process Wizard. As an lender, you determine the logic that goes into a rule—they're customizable.
Validations are similar to Rules but vary slightly. While Rules run before a Process Wizard is opened, Validations run as soon as you open a Process Wizard. Validations can restrict access to a Process Wizard but, unlike Rules, don't have to. Instead, you can decide to set specific Validations as "not required" to let users use their judgment on whether to use the Wizard, based on the loan situation. Validations are set up to give your personnel a bit of flexibility. Validations also offer the chance to add some clarity on why a loan may or may not qualify for a specific Process Wizard. At least one Validation must be created for a Process Wizard like Rules, but you can create as many Validations as you'd like. As a lender, you get to determine the logic these contain as well.
Categories and Groups
Once you have created your Process Wizards, it's a good idea to organize them. You can do this easily with Wizard Categories. The idea of Wizard Categories is straightforward—they allow you to group your Wizards into categories like servicing, fraud, or bankruptcy. These are merely used to tidy up your list of Process Wizards and help you find related Wizards more easily.
Wizard Groups, on the other hand, allow you to determine which users within your company have access to which Process Wizards. If you have specific personnel that you'd like to restrict a group of Process Wizards from using, Groups will help you do so. For example, if you'd prefer to revoke access to fraud Wizards specifically from your servicing team, creating a Group is the best option. Each agent user within LMS can be assigned to a Process Wizards Group, and any Process Wizards that are not categorized within the assigned group will not be viewable by the user.
User Roles can play a part in Process Wizards as well. Some users prefer to create "Wizard Only" roles that grant users access to make changes to loans only through Process Wizards. A user role like this is useful for personnel that are still becoming familiar with the software or personnel who are expected to make only specific, minor changes.
The access that a Process Wizard provides supersedes the access granted by the user's assigned role. In other words, if a user is denied access to information by their user role, a Process Wizard that accesses that information will grant access to the user within the Wizard. For example, a user may be denied the access to view sensitive customer information. But if the same user opens a Process Wizard that has access to that sensitive customer information, the user will be able to view it while within the Process Wizard.
This Feature is Not
As with any feature, getting the most out of Process Wizards requires you to understand their limitations. Here's a few things that Wizards are ill-suited for:
- Wizards are not total automation. Wizards make it easy for your agents to service their loans, but human input is still required. Though, wizards do work well in tandem with our main automation tool, Rules Applied.
- Wizards are not failure-proof. Wizards help your agents navigate through the software, but it's still possible for an agent to make a mistake once they get there. Good training and clear instructions can help mitigate that risk.
What’s Next?
If you have made it this far, you have a great start on creating and using Process Wizards. The information in this article is basic, however, and the topics discussed here are discussed in greater detail in other articles. If you would like to learn more about how to create Process Wizards, our Creating Process Wizards article is a great source of information. We also have additional material on creating Process Wizard Groups and creating roles specifically for Wizards.